Conference calling allows two or more parties to collaborate without having to be at the same location. At first, conference calls were limited to voice communications but they have since evolved to handle real-time video communications and presentation materials, among other features, that improve the ability for parties to communicate remotely from one another. A conferencing system is typically used to facilitate the distribution of communications between parties on a conference call.
In some cases, a conferencing system may be limited in the number of connections that are able to be on a conference call at any one time. Such limitations may be caused by physical hardware limitations, such as limitations on the number of connections a communication interface is able to receive or on the number of connections a processing system is able to process. Alternatively, the conferencing system may be provided as part of a service and a service agreement may limit the number of connections that are allowed at a time for a conference call.
In addition to the above limitations that may burden a conferencing system, the subject matter of a meeting may not require all meeting participants to be on a conference call at the same time. In some cases, it may even be preferred or required, for a business purpose or otherwise, that not all meeting participants be on a call at the same time (e.g. during employee performance reviews). Regardless of the reason for not having all meeting participants on a call at one time, coordinating remote participants to connect to a call at desired times using current means can be a difficult endeavor.